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Angels Seeking Multiple Starters, Left-Handed Bat

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The Angels have quite a bit to achieve this offseason. Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com writes that the club would like to add multiple starting pitchers and bullpen help. General manager Perry Minasian said from the GM Meetings that they’re also looking for offense, with preference for a left-handed bat.

“Is (a lefty hitter) the No. 1 pressing need? Is that ‘A’ on the checklist of things to do? No,” Minasian told reporters (link via Jeff Fletcher of The Orange County Register). “But it is something we’ve talked about a ton. We want to be a more balanced offense. … There are some really attractive right-handed hitters that I’d love to have, that are just good hitters, that I don’t necessarily think anyone cares if they’re right-handed or left-handed. So does it have to be left-handed? No. Apples to apples? Of course, you choose left hand over right-handed.”

The Halos have three pitchers penciled into the Opening Day rotation: Yusei Kikuchi, José Soriano and Reid Detmers. They don’t have much beyond that with none of Caden Dana, Sam Aldegheri, Jack Kochanowicz or Mitch Farris securing a rotation spot. They’re likely to push 2025 second overall pick Tyler Bremner quickly, but it’d be surprising if the Angels were willing to carry him in the Opening Day rotation before he pitches in the minors at all. They skipped 2024 second-rounder Ryan Johnson right to the big leagues as a reliever this past season, but he struggled and was optioned in early May. Johnson built back as a starter and pitched well in High-A but still has no starting experience in the upper levels.

The bullpen could lose its two most reliable arms. Detmers, last season’s top setup man, is moving back to the rotation. Closer Kenley Jansen is a free agent. The Angels presumably would like to bring Jansen back after an excellent season. The four-time All-Star went 29-30 in save chances. He turned in a 2.59 ERA across 59 innings. Even that was inflated by one nightmare appearance against the Tigers in which he gave up six of the 17 earned runs he allowed all season. Jansen is probably limited to one-year deals at this stage of his career, though he could match last winter’s $10MM guarantee.

Left-hander Brock Burke enters the offseason as the Angels’ only reliable reliever. Minasian provided a positive update on talented but oft-injured righty Robert Stephenson, who finished the season on the shelf with elbow inflammation. Stephenson will not require surgery and is expected to be ready for Spring Training, Bollinger relays. Stephenson has the talent to pitch late in games, but his durability issues make him a wild card. The Angels clearly need to add multiple leverage arms.

While pitching figures to be the priority, the Halos have a few questions in the lineup. They don’t have an everyday center fielder or third baseman. Christian Moore projects as the starting second baseman, but he struggled as a rookie after being quickly pushed through the minors. There’s arguably a corner outfield glut with Taylor Ward, Mike Trout, Jorge Soler and Jo Adell — who is miscast in center field and should stay in right, where he spent the final month of the ’25 season. Ward and Adell have already come up in trade rumors. One of them could be swapped for a player at a position of greater need, but that’d be nowhere close to all the work for the front office to accomplish.

The club’s preference would be to add a lefty hitter at one or two of those positions. No team gave fewer plate appearances to left-handed batters this year. Only the Astros leaned more heavily on pure righty bats. The Angels had an MLB-worst .224 batting average against righty pitching. They were 28th in on-base percentage (.299) and 24th in slugging (.394). Switch-hitters Luis Rengifo and Yoán Moncada hit free agency, leaving first baseman Nolan Schanuel as their only lefty hitter set for a significant role.

If they go into free agency for that need, it’d make most sense to focus on center field. Trent Grisham and Cody Bellinger are available at the higher ends of the market. Cedric Mullins is a rebound candidate who’ll probably sign for one year.

There are far fewer lefty bats who could play second or third base. If neither Rengifo nor Moncada are retained, the best free agent options are Jorge Polanco, Luis Arraez and Willi Castro. Polanco can play either position but saw a lot of DH work with the Mariners this year because of knee issues. Arraez hasn’t played second base regularly in two years because of limited range. Castro is a bat-first utility player who started the season well but went downhill after a deadline trade to the Cubs.

Players like CJ Abrams, Brendan Donovan or Brandon Lowe could be available in trade. That’d require the Angels to deal from an already bad farm system for short-term help on the heels of a 72-90 season. As Minasian noted, that could leave them to pursue a superior righty-hitting infielder even if it’s not ideal for lineup balance. Bo Bichette, Alex Bregman, Eugenio Suárez, Kazuma Okamoto, Ha-Seong Kim and Gleyber Torres are all right-handed hitting free agents who can play second and/or third.

Torres, who is weighing a qualifying offer from the Tigers, was apparently a target of the Angels last winter. Ken Rosenthal, Will Sammon and Katie Woo of The Athletic report that Torres rejected a multi-year offer from the Halos during the 2024-25 offseason because he doubted the team could contend. He signed a one-year, $15MM contract with Detroit. The Tigers made the playoffs for a second consecutive season and the Angels still have one of the worst rosters in the American League on paper.

Angels Hire Max Stassi As Catching Coach

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The Angels are hiring Max Stassi to serve as their catching coach, general manager Perry Minasian confirmed Wednesday. They’re also adding Keith Johnson and Andy Schatzley to the staff as third base coach and infield coach, respectively. Jeff Fletcher of The Orange County Register first reported the hires.

Stassi, 34, had not officially announced his retirement as a player. He’s apparently moving into the next phase of his career after playing parts of ten seasons in the big leagues. Stassi had played in Triple-A in the Giants organization this past season, though he spent most of the year on the minor league injured list. His final MLB appearance came in 2022 with the Halos.

Originally a fourth-round pick of the A’s, Stassi was traded to the Astros before he reached Double-A. He debuted with Houston in 2013 and spent the next few seasons as a third catcher on the organizational depth chart. Stassi technically logged parts of seven big league seasons with the Astros, but he combined for just 163 games over that stretch. Only once did he play more than 31 games in a season.

The Angels acquired Stassi in what seemed like a minor deal at the 2019 deadline. He struggled down the stretch but exceeded expectations over the next couple seasons. Stassi hit .278 with seven homers in 31 games during the shortened 2020 schedule. He popped a career-high 13 longballs with a .241/.326/.426 batting line over 319 trips to the plate a year later.

Stassi signed a three-year, $17.5MM extension going into the 2022 season. The Halos gave him the lion’s share of work behind the dish, while Kurt Suzuki served as the backup catcher. Stassi took a career-high 375 plate appearances but slumped to a .180/.267/.303 batting line. That unfortunately will go down as his final MLB action. He missed the entire ’23 season — first because of a hip injury, then attending to a family situation after his son was born three months premature and required several months in NICU.

The Angels traded Stassi to the Braves as part of a shuffling of dead money over the 2023-24 offseason. Atlanta immediately released him, leading to a free agent deal with the White Sox. Stassi’s bothersome hip led him to begin the season back on the injured list, and he underwent season-ending surgery in July. He wasn’t able to stay healthy in the minors last season either, so he’s now moving into coaching. He finishes his playing days with a .212/.295/.361 slash with 41 home runs in a little more than 400 games. He drove in 128 runs and collected 241 hits.

Stassi’s jump into coaching comes with his old team and on his former catching mate’s staff. Suzuki is headed into his first season as an MLB manager. They tabbed an experienced bench coach in John Gibbons and a highly-respected veteran pitching coach in Mike Maddux. Adam Eaton gets his first MLB coaching opportunity as first base/outfield coach.

Johnson and Schatzley had each been managers in the Halos’ farm system — Johnson at Triple-A Salt Lake, Schatzley with Double-A Rocket City. The 54-year-old Johnson has managed in the organization for 14 years. He’d previously worked on the MLB staff as an infield coach and spent a couple seasons as first base coach of the Marlins. He appeared in six games for the Angels in 2000, his only big league playing experience. Schatzley, 41, has managed in the system for the past five seasons after spending nearly a decade in the college ranks. This is his first role on an MLB staff.

David Fletcher To Retire

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Veteran infielder David Fletcher is retiring, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. The 31-year-old spent the majority of his seven-year MLB career with the Angels.

Los Angeles took Fletcher in the sixth round of the 2015 draft. The 5’9″ infielder posted strong batted-ball skills at each level of the minors, reaching Triple-A in 2017. Fletcher put up a healthy 143 wRC+ over 58 games with Triple-A Salt Lake in 2018, earning a callup to the big-league club. Los Angeles had Andrelton Simmons penciled in at shortstop, but an Ian Kinsler trade opened up regular playing time at second base. Fletcher hit .275 over 307 plate appearances in his first taste of MLB action.

Fletcher delivered his best results in the shortened 2020 season. He slashed .319/.376/.425 across 49 games. Fletcher bounced around the infield, making starts at second base, shortstop, and third base. He also appeared once in right field. The strong campaign helped Fletcher land a five-year, $26MM extension just before the 2021 season.

Following the extension, Fletcher took over as the Angels’ full-time second baseman. He played a career-high 157 games in 2021. Fletcher earned strong defensive marks (9 DRS, 8 Outs Above Average) in 1,212 innings at second base. He also swiped 15 bags, after coming into the season with just 13 career steals. Fletcher’s production at the plate, however, trailed off considerably. He scuffled to a 69 wRC+ over 665 plate appearances. Fletcher was dropped from the leadoff spot to ninth in the order by May. He regained the leadoff spot midseason, but closed the year back in the nine hole.

Hip and hand injuries derailed Fletcher’s 2022 campaign. He was available for just 61 games. Fletcher once again performed well in the field, while he struggled as a hitter. He opened the 2023 season healthy, but went 2-for-16 in April and was demoted to Triple-A Sacramento. Fletcher appeared in just 33 games with the Angels that year. Los Angeles flipped him to Atlanta in December 2023, allowing the team some short-term financial flexibility.

Fletcher’s career would take some twists and turns after his tenure with the Angels. Atlanta passed him through waivers shortly after the trade. Unsurprisingly, no team wanted to pick up the rest of Fletcher’s deal, and he went unclaimed. He spent the majority of the season in the minors with Atlanta, but not as an infielder. Fletcher transitioned to pitching that season, utilizing a knuckleball to try to make an MLB comeback. He made 22 appearances across two levels, posting a 6.39 ERA. During the middle of the 2024 season, a report emerged linking Fletcher to the bookmaker used by Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara. According to the report, Fletcher placed bets with the illegal Southern California gambling ring, though those wagers were not on baseball.

Fletcher ditched the pitching experiment and went back to the infield in 2025. He played in 83 games across Double-A and Triple-A this past season, slashing .185/.233/.258. Atlanta declined his $8MM club option last week. He elected minor league free agency, but will now head into retirement.

We at MLB Trade Rumors congratulate Fletcher on a solid career and wish him the best in his future endeavours.

Photo courtesy of Gary A. Vasquez, Imagn Images

Angels Add John Gibbons, Adam Eaton To Coaching Staff

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The Angels are hiring former Blue Jays manager John Gibbons as their bench coach under new manager Kurt Suzuki, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. They’re also hiring former big league outfielder Adam Eaton as their first base coach, per the report.

Gibbons, 63, has managed 11 seasons in the majors — all with the Blue Jays. That lengthy history of running a dugout and clubhouse will prove valuable for a Suzuki, who’s not only a rookie manager but has never even coached prior to his hiring as the Angels’ new skipper. In two separate stints as Toronto’s manager, Gibbons holds a 793-789 record. His Blue Jays reached the American League Championship Series in back-to-back seasons in 2015-16 but failed to advance to the World Series either year, falling to Kansas City and Cleveland in those respective seasons.

Over the past two seasons, Gibbons has served as the bench coach for the Mets under another rookie skipper: Carlos Mendoza. He’s also coached in the majors with the Blue Jays and Royals in addition to minor league managerial stints with the Mets and Padres organizations.

Eaton, 37 next month, was playing in the majors as recently as 2021. He spent a decade in the majors between the White Sox, Nationals, Diamondbacks and — briefly at the end of his career — the same Angels club for which he’ll now be coaching. That stint with the Halos in 2021 surely familiarized him with the organization and with general manager Perry Minasian. He and Suzuki were teammates for two years with the Nationals as well, including during the team’s 2019 World Series victory.

Fletcher notes that Eaton has spent the past two seasons as the director of player development at Michigan State University, but this will be his first coaching assignment in pro ball. In addition to his work as first base coach, Eaton will be an outfield instructor. He finished his career with strong defensive grades, due in no small part to some stellar early seasons in the field — particularly a 2016 campaign in which he likely should have won a Gold Glove after posting a stunning 28 Defensive Runs Saved and 18 Outs Above Average in right field for the White Sox.

Royals Evaluating Outfield Trade Market

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The General Managers Meetings are taking place in Las Vegas this week, a setting where teams often start conversations on possible transactions to be made later in the offseason. Jon Morosi of MLB Network reports that the Royals are evaluating the outfield trade market.

It’s a logical target for the club. The outfield in Kansas City has been a weak spot for years. 2025 was no exception. The team’s outfielders had a collective .225/.285/.348 batting line this year. That resulted in a 73 wRC+, indicating the club’s outfield group was 27% worse than league average. That was easily the worst mark in the majors, with the Guardians’ jardineros second-last with a wRC+ of 77.

The current group in Kansas City includes Jac Caglianone, Kyle Isbel, John Rave, Dairon Blanco, MJ Melendez, Kameron Misner, Drew Waters and others. Caglianone came into 2025 as a top prospect but struggled badly in his first major league call-up. No one else in the group has any real track record of big league success either.

Upgrading there is an obvious way to improve the club overall. The trade market also makes sense as a way to go about doing it, considering the club’s finances. About a month ago, owner John Sherman said that he expects the 2026 club to have a fairly similar payroll to 2025. RosterResource currently estimates the Royals for a payroll of about $140MM next year. That’s slightly higher than the $138MM RR pegged their spending at the end of 2025.

That doesn’t suggest the front office will have a huge amount of spending capacity. They could lower their commitments by non-tendering some of their arb-eligible players. Jonathan India has the highest projected salary in the Royals’ class at $7.4MM and he’s coming off a poor season. The club could also perhaps trade Kris Bubic and his projected $6MM salary since the rotation could still be in decent shape without him.

Even if the club does pinch a few pennies, they’re not going to suddenly become favorites for a big free agent like Kyle Tucker or Cody Bellinger. Re-signing Mike Yastrzemski is feasible but it’s understandable that president of baseball operations J.J. Picollo would check to see what’s available on the trade market.

Morosi mentions the Red Sox and Angels as possible trading partners. Those seem like speculative picks but they make sense. The Angels have a question in center field but have a crowded mix in the corners. Mike Trout, Taylor Ward, Jo Adell and Jorge Soler give them four options for three spots, between the two outfield corners and the designated hitter slot. Trout isn’t going anywhere and Soler has negative trade value at the moment, since he is owed $13MM next year and is coming off a down season.

Trading one of Adell or Ward seems like the move for the Angels, as that could clear up the logjam while potentially adding some much-needed pitching help. MLBTR put both of them on our recent list of the Top 40 Trade Candidates for this offseason. Last week, Morosi reported that the Halos would indeed listen on Ward and Adell.

Ward has the better track record. He has essentially been a 20-plus homer guy for four years now. He only got to 14 long balls in 2023 but was limited by injuries to just 97 games. He just hit 36 homers in 2025 with a strong 11.3% walk rate to boot. Reviews on his defense are mixed. He’s been credited with seven Outs Above Average in his career but minus-14 Defensive Runs Saved.

Adell got many chances with the Angels and didn’t take advantage of most of them but he has shown some promise lately. He did 20 homers in 2024 and 37 this year. His walk and strikeout rates are poor, limiting the overall value of his offense, but he was still a decent contributor in 2025. His .236/.293/.485 line translated to a 112 wRC+. His defensive grades were poor in center but more passable in right.

Though Ward has the longer résumé, the trade value might be comparable. Ward is just one year from free agency and is projected for a salary of $13.7MM next year. Adell, meanwhile, is projected for just $5.5MM and can be controlled through 2027.

The Red Sox have a well-known glut of outfield options which currently includes Ceddanne Rafaela, Roman Anthony, Jarren Duran, Wilyer Abreu, Masataka Yoshida and Jhostynxon García. Anthony signed a big extension with the club and isn’t going anywhere. That’s likely also the case for Rafaela, who also signed an extension and is an elite glove in center. García isn’t yet proven at the major league level but is optionable and swings from the right side, a potential asset in a lefty-heavy lineup.

Duran and Abreu are fairly redundant as lefty-swinging corner guys. Both cracked the aforementioned MLBTR list of Top 40 Trade Candidates for this winter. Duran has more big league experience and has shown a higher ceiling but he’s down to three years of club control and will make $7.7MM in 2026. Abreu, on the other hand, hasn’t yet qualified for arbitration and still has four seasons of club control remaining.

Both the Angels and Red Sox plan to compete in 2026. If either club were to trade an outfielder, they would likely be looking for a return that would help the big league club, as opposed to prospects. Both clubs could use pitching, which is something the Royals have. MLBTR’s Nick Deeds recently took a look at the club’s rotation depth and the possibility that the club could leverage that into an offensive upgrade.

The offseason is still young, so there are still many possible paths for the Royals to take. In addition to the Angels and Red Sox, clubs like the Cardinals, Twins, Diamondbacks and others could have outfielders available, while signing Yastrzemski or someone similar is possible as well.

Photo courtesy of Jerome Miron, Imagn Images

Twins Rumors: Payroll, Ryan, Coaching Staff

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The Twins are expected to listen to trade offers on several of their remaining veterans after gutting the roster — particularly the bullpen — ahead of this year’s trade deadline. Right-handers Joe Ryan and Pablo Lopez ranked prominently on MLBTR’s list of the offseason’s top 40 trade candidates, as did catcher Ryan Jeffers. The extent to which the Twins further subtract from the roster will at least in part stem from ownership’s budget for next year’s payroll. To this point, the Pohlad family has not given the baseball operations department “a clear direction” on next year’s payroll, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports.

RosterResource currently projects a $95MM payroll for the Twins, which is down more than $40MM from their Opening Day mark in 2025. That doesn’t include potential subtractions from the arbitration class. Trevor Larnach, projected for a $4.7MM salary (via MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz), stands as a non-tender or trade candidate. Obviously, trades of Ryan, Lopez and/or Jeffers would further scale back spending. Lopez is earning $21.75MM in each of the next two seasons. Ryan is projected for a $5.8MM salary. Jeffers is projected to earn $6.6MM. (Center fielder Byron Buxton is guaranteed $15MM but has a full no-trade clause and has said even after the team’s summer fire sale that he won’t consider approving a trade.)

The idea of Minnesota taking that newfound payroll flexibility and reinvesting it in a series of win-now moves to complement a roster still featuring Ryan, Lopez, Buxton, Jeffers and several promising young position players (Luke Keaschall perhaps chief among them) makes at least some sense on paper, but there’s little in the Pohlads’ history of owning the club to support the notion that they’d go that route. Further subtraction still seems likely, though until the Twins tip their hand with whatever the first moves of the offseason are, perhaps fans can hold out some faint hope for a quicker-than-expected turnaround.

Assuming they indeed operate more on the sell side of things, Ryan in particular will be one of the most sought-after names on the trade market. The Twins discussed the 29-year-old righty, who has two years of affordable arbitration control remaining, with several clubs ahead of the summer trade deadline. No deal came to pass, but the Red Sox are known to have had substantial discussions regarding the right-hander, while the Yankees and Mets were among the others to at least check in.

Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register adds the Angels to the list of clubs that showed interest in Joe Ryan prior to the trade deadline. With the Halos set to seek pitching upgrades again this winter, it stands to reason that they could circle back and talk with the Twins this winter. The Angels’ farm system is not well regarded, though they have a fair number of young big leaguers or nearly MLB-ready arms who could pique the Twins’ interest (e.g. George Klassen, Ryan Johnson, Nelson Rada, 2025 first-rounder Tyler Bremner).

The Angels would surely face competition in any bid for Ryan. The 2025 All-Star tossed 171 innings of 3.42 ERA ball this past season, fanning 28.2% of opponents against a tidy 5.7% walk rate. He sports a career 3.79 earned run average that’s skewed a bit by an outlier 4.51 mark in 2023. Ryan has virtually no platoon split in his career, with the main blemish against him being some susceptibility to home runs (particularly in that rocky ’23 campaign). Angel Stadium, notably, has been more conducive to home runs than Minneapolis’ Target Field — both over the past three seasons and in 2025, in particular.

Much of the focus in the early stages of the offseason will be in determining exactly which direction the Twins will go and — if they indeed sell more veterans — the depth of that potential teardown. Minnesota already had a relatively well-regarded farm system prior to the deadline, and the Twins now boast one of the best minor league systems in the sport. They’re not a system that’s devoid of minor league talent, so the extent to which ownership is willing to invest in the club will be especially instructive when it comes to their 2026 outlook.

Looking beyond the roster, however, there are still some short-term decisions that need to be made in the dugout. Longtime manager Rocco Baldelli was fired at season’s end and replaced by his former bench coach from 2019, Derek Shelton. Bobby Nightengale of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune writes that the Twins initially began their search for a manager with a speculative list running around 80 names deep. They whittled that to 15, conducted Zoom interviews with seven and held in-person interviews with Shelton, Yankees hitting coach James Rowson (another former Twins staffer) and former Mariners skipper Scott Servais.

The decision, per Nightengale, ultimately came down to Shelton or Rowson. While Shelton won the job in the end, the Twins are hopeful of hiring Rowson back to the organization as Shelton’s new bench coach, Nightengale reports. The rest of the staff is largely up in the air. Dan Hayes of The Athletic reports that the Twins will retain pitching coach Pete Maki, pairing him with newly hired bullpen coach LaTroy Hawkins to oversee the staff in Minnesota.

Third base coach Tommy Watkins has already departed for Atlanta, and Hayes writes that assistant bench coach/catching coach Hank Conger and quality control coach Nate Dammann have both been dismissed. Decisions have yet to be made on hitting coaches Matt Borgschulte, Trevor Amicone and Rayden Sierra.

Kyle Hendricks To Retire

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Veteran right-hander Kyle Hendricks is calling it a career. The longtime Cubs hurler, who spent the 2025 season with the Angels, is retiring, per Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times.

Hendricks, now 35, will be forever associated with the curse-breaking Cubs but was originally drafted by the Rangers. Texas grabbed him with an eighth-round pick back in 2011. A year later, while in High-A, he was flipped to the Cubs as part of the July 2012 trade which sent Ryan Dempster to Texas.

He continued to climb the minor league ladder and debuted with the Cubs in 2014. He made 13 starts that year, logging 80 1/3 innings, allowing 2.46 earned runs per nine. His velocity was barely above 90 miles per hour but he showed strong command of a five-pitch mix, relying more on disrupting hitters’ timing than missing bats. He would eventually earn the nickname “The Professor” on account of both his cerebral approach to pitching and the fact that he went to Dartmouth College, an Ivy League school.

At that time of his debut, the Cubs were still looking for their first World Series since 1908 and were also rebuilding. Despite a strong debut from Hendricks in 2014, the Cubs finished fifth in the National League Central for a fifth straight year.

But the light at the end of the tunnel was getting brighter. Guys like Hendricks, Anthony Rizzo, Jake Arrieta and Javier Báez were already on the roster. Kris Bryant hadn’t yet debuted but was the top prospect in baseball going into 2015. The Cubs made a big splash to signal a new era by signing Jon Lester to a six-year, $155MM deal.

In 2015, Hendricks got to pitch his first full big league season. He logged 180 innings over 32 starts with a 3.95 ERA, 22.6% strikeout rate, 5.8% walk rate and 51.3% ground ball rate. The Cubs emerged from their rebuild, winning 97 games and nabbing a playoff spot. At that time, the Wild Card round was just a one-game playoff between two clubs. The Cubs got by the Pirates and then beat the Cardinals in the NLDS, felling two division rivals, but were swept out of the NLCS by the Mets.

The Cubs and Hendricks found another gear the following year. Hendricks led the majors in ERA with a 2.13 figure over 190 innings. He finished third in Cy Young voting behind Max Scherzer and Lester. The Cubs won 103 games and finished atop the Central. They beat the Giants in the NLDS and the Dodgers in the NLCS. The latter series was clinched by Hendricks throwing 7 1/3 shutout innings in Game Six. That set up a matchup against Cleveland in the World Series, which would eventually go to seven games. Hendricks got the ball in the final game and went 4 2/3 innings, allowing one earned run. The Cubs would eventually win the game 8-7 in ten innings. Hendricks had a 1.42 ERA over five starts in that postseason.

That ultimately proved to be a peak for the franchise and for Hendricks himself, though the team had a few more winning seasons and Hendricks continued to be a solid piece of the rotation. In March of 2019, he and the Cubs agreed to a four-year, $55.5MM extension. That deal was set to keep him at Wrigley through 2023, though the Cubs would eventually pick up a club option for 2024 as well.

By that time, Hendricks had seen his results slip. As mentioned, he was never a huge velocity or strikeout guy but those attributes had fallen further from par as he aged. That led to him posting a 5.92 ERA in 2024. After that season, he and the Cubs finally parted ways. Early in the 2024-25 offseason, he signed a one-year, $2.5MM deal with the Angels. He grew up in Southern California, so this allowed him to pitch for a team close to his roots for the first time. He made 31 starts for the Halos with a 4.76 ERA.

Overall, Hendricks pitched in 307 games and logged 1,745 innings with a 3.79 ERA, 105 wins and 91 losses. He made 146 quality starts, including six complete games and four shutouts. He struck out 1,373 opponents. Baseball Reference estimates he earned just over $86MM in his career. We at MLB Trade Rumors congratulate The Professor on a fine career and wish him the best on whatever comes next.

Photo courtesy of Jeff Curry, Katie Stratman, Imagn Images

Angels Claim Cody Laweryson

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The Angels announced that they’ve claimed right-handed reliever Cody Laweryson off waivers from the Twins. That’ll bring the Halos’ 40-man roster count to 34 players while dropping the Twins to 38.

Laweryson, 28 next May, was a 14th-round pick by Minnesota back in 2019 and made his MLB debut this past season, tossing 7 2/3 innings and allowing one run late in the season. The 6’4″ righty punched out seven of 26 opponents and didn’t issue a walk. He averaged 93.2 mph on his four-seamer, mixing in a cutter and changeup to round out a three-pitch repertoire.

That marked the end of a quality all-around season for the Maine native. He split the remainder of the season between Double-A and Triple-A, working to a combined 2.86 ERA with a 24.6% strikeout rate, 7.7% walk rate and 46.3% ground-ball rate in 44 innings of minor league relief.

Laweryson was only added to the 40-man roster after Minnesota gutted its bullpen at this year’s trade deadline, shipping out five relievers for a series of prospects and controllable young big leaguers. Minnesota will likely trim several more names from the 40-man roster in the days ahead, as the bullpen for the final couple months was composed almost entirely of journeyman stopgaps to get through the end of the season.

MLBTR Podcast: Offseason Preview Megapod: Top Trade Candidates

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The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams and Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

Check out our past episodes!

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Photo courtesy of Jeff Curry, Imagn Images

Angels Hire Mike Maddux As Pitching Coach

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10:10am: The Angels have confirmed that Maddux will be their new pitching coach, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register.

9:38am: Pitching coach Mike Maddux won’t return to the Rangers in 2026 and will instead be hired to new Angels manager Kurt Suzuki’s staff in Anaheim, reports Jeff Wilson of DLLS Sports. It’s expected to be a one-year deal. The Angels haven’t formally announced the hiring, but Wilson adds that the Rangers have confirmed they were unable to reach a new deal with Maddux. Texas granted its division rival permission to speak to Maddux but also made an offer to retain him even after the Halos had inquired about his availability, per the report.

Rangers president of baseball ops Chris Young tells Wilson that his club is “forever grateful” to Maddux, who “played a major role” on the team’s first-ever World Series victory during the 2023 season and oversaw a dominant Texas pitching staff in 2025. Rangers starters led the majors with a 3.41 ERA this past season. Their bullpen’s collective 3.62 mark placed fifth in MLB despite being composed almost entirely of short-term free agent acquisitions from the prior offseason.

Following the season, Young expressed interest in retaining Maddux, whether in a new contract as pitching coach or another role within the organization. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News adds that the team indeed discussed alternative roles in addition to extending an offer to return as pitching coach. Instead, he’ll head west and join the fifth team of his lengthy coaching career.

Maddux, who turned 64 in August, had a 15-year career as a big league pitcher but has had an even more notable run as one of the most prolific pitching coaches in the league. He pitched for nine teams during his decade and a half in MLB, compiling a 4.05 ERA in 861 2/3 innings while working both as a starter and a reliever.

Lengthy as his career was, Maddux has now been a big league coach for an even longer stretch of time. He’s spent the past 23 seasons as a major league pitching coach, beginning with a six-year run in Milwaukee from 2003-08. Maddux then jumped to his first of two stints in Texas, spending the ’09-’15 seasons as pitching coach in Arlington, primarily under Ron Washington (who only just departed the Angels’ managerial role). That was followed by two years in D.C. as Nationals pitching coach and a five-year run in St. Louis. Maddux returned to the Rangers in 2023, Bochy’s first year on the job, and guided the staff en route to that year’s World Series championship.

Maddux will have a tough task ahead. The Angels don’t boast nearly the same level of pitching talent as their division rivals. Yusei Kikuchi and Jose Soriano are solid arms locked into the rotation, but the rest of the starting staff is a question mark. Former first-rounder and top prospect Reid Detmers will move back to a rotation role after a successful 2025 in the bullpen, and the Halos will hope that former top prospect Caden Dana can break through this season. Other rotation candidates include Mitch Farris, Sam Aldegheri and prospect George Klassen, but starting pitching figures to be a focus for GM Perry Minasian this winter.

In the bullpen, things are even shakier. Flamethrower Ben Joyce underwent shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum in May. Robert Stephenson, the team’s big-ticket addition in free agency two winters ago, missed all of 2024 due to Tommy John surgery and pitched just 10 innings late in the ’25 season. Lefty Brock Burke had a nice season, but closer Kenley Jansen is a free agent and the rest of the staff is lacking in both experience and sustained MLB success.

Of course, Maddux is one of many voices who’ll be working with the staff. The game has evolved in many ways since the pitching coach was the primary influence on a team’s staff. Maddux may be the lead voice for the group, but he’ll have assistant coaches, advance scouts and input from the team’s analytic department as well in trying to reshape a Halos staff that posted MLB’s third-worst ERA (4.89) in 2025.

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